Introduction

Open your Bibles, please, to the book of Ruth, that portion of the Word of
God that we are studying together. I think it would be wise for us in
view of the fact that we are beginning the study of the chapter to keep in
mind the very simple outline that we gave you of the book of of Ruth. We
remind you that it is built around the chief character of the book, Ruth.
We suggested to you that in chapter 1 we would find Ruth returning to her
land or the land of her in-laws, the land of the God of Israel. In
chapter 2, we would find Ruth reaping; in chapter 3, we would find Ruth
resting; and in chapter 4, we would find Ruth rewarded.

We suggested to you that in our study of the book of Ruth we are going to
follow a threefold approach. We would like for you to get that firmly
fixed in your mind so you will know what we are talking about as we
discuss these various truths in this particular book. We said we were
going to follow the approach of analogy first, then the approach of
soteriology, and then the approach of eschatology. Analogy is a
comparison of physical, material things with spiritual things so as to
find the spiritual lesson that God would have for us in the particular
portion under discussion. Soteriology is the study of redemption.
Eschatology is the study of last things.

At the moment, we are using the approach of analogy and in so doing in the
first chapter, you will recall, we learned that God's disciplining hand
rested upon the family of Elimelech until they were ready to be back in
His plan, which was related to their return to their homeland. We
suggested that God's disciplining hand rests upon us until we, too, are
ready to do that which God would have us do.

The latter part of the chapter, we learned, was an analogy of the
decisions that were made by Ruth and Naomi and Orpah, illustrating the
decisions which are made by individuals today, the decisions which are
made by those who are mere professors and by those who are possessors. Of
course, the decision of the prodigal was represented in the life of Naomi.

We noticed that the decision of the possessor was represented in the life
of Ruth. She actually possessed a relationship to the God of Israel that
made her do more than talk about returning. She returned.

As we come to chapter 2, we find Ruth in the family of Israel, or as Boaz
mentioned it, we find her under the wings of the God of Israel in whom she
had come to trust, or we find her a born-again believer, if we want to
draw the analogy properly.

The Occupation of the Redeemed

If I were to ask you what is expected of a born-again believer, I wonder
what answers I would receive. I daresay there would be quite a few of
them. Because our time is limited, I want to suggest to you as we look at
chapter 2 of the book of Ruth, that we are going to find Ruth reaping; or,
as we make our analogy, we are going to find a description of the
occupation of the reaping soul. What is the chief occupation of the
redeemed soul? That is what we want to discover, so if you will follow in
your Bibles, please:

Ruth 2

1

And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the
family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

2

And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and
glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she
said unto her, Go, my daughter.

3

And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and
her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was
of the kindred of Elimelech.

4

And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The
LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.

5

Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose
damsel is this?

6

And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is
the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:

7

And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers
among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning
until now, that she tarried a little in the house.

8

Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean
in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:

9

Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after
them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and
when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the
young men have drawn.

10

Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said
unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take
knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?

11

And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all
that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine
husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of
thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.

12

The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the
LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

13

Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou
hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine
handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens.

14

And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the
bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers:
and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and
left.

Let me pause there for a moment and suggest that that is not as good a
translation in the verse as it might be because it seems as though she
ate, she was satisfied, and she left. What the verse is saying is she
ate, she was satisfied and she had plenty left over. We will find out
what she did with that which she had left over later on in the chapter.

Ruth 2

15

And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men,
saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:

16

And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave
them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.

17

So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had
gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.

18

And she took it up, and went into the city: and her mother in law saw
what she had gleaned: and she brought forth, and gave to her that she had
reserved after she was sufficed.

If you will keep in mind what I told you in verse 14, you will find what
she did with what she had left over in verse 8. When she went home that
evening, she took to her mother-in-law for her supper what she had left
over from her lunch at the noonday meal.

Ruth 2

19

And her mother in law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned to day? and
where wroughtest thou? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And
she shewed her mother in law with whom she had wrought, and said, The
man's name with whom I wrought to day is Boaz.

20

And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who
hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi
said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.

21

And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast
by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.

22

And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law, It is good, my daughter,
that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other
field.

23

So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley
harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law.

If you were following closely as we read this passage of Scripture, you
noticed one word that was repeated over and over again. It was the word
“glean.” It is mentioned twelve times in that chapter, and the mention of
the word “glean” twelve times sets the trend of the chapter. If I were to
ask you again the question that we mentioned earlier again in our
discussion, “What is to be the chief occupation of the redeemed soul?”,
your answer, on the basis of that word, could be “gleaning.” We use the
word “reaping” for the sake of alliteration as an aid to your memory. The
first chapter we said presented Ruth returning, the second chapter, Ruth
reaping. Gleaning is a kind of reaping, but it is a more particular kind
of reaping. It comes from the Hebrew word lawkat
, which means
“to pick up” or “to gather,” and the picture is of individuals who follow
the reapers who reap and glean that which remains.

Significance of Gleaning In Scriptures

If I were to ask you to tell me what reaping stands for, what is the
typical significance of reaping in the Scripure, I daresay that most of
you would tell me that reaping is typical of the Christian's
responsibility to win men to Christ. You probably would base your remarks
on what is found in the last two verses of chapter 9 of the Gospel of
Matthew where the Lord Jesus Christ said:

Matthew 9

37

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but
the labourers are few;

38

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth
labourers into his harvest.

You would say the real responsiblity of the redeemed soul, the chief
occupation, ought to be soul-winning. I don't think that you would find
very many people who disagree with you, but I am going to disagree with
you if that is your opinion, because the chief occupation of the redeemed
is not soul-winning. It is reaping or gleaning if you want to use that
word, but not soul-winning. Now wait just a minute. I don't want to be
misquoted so that someone would go from here and say that I said you
shouldn't win souls. I didn't say that. I said your chief occupation
ought not be the winning of souls, and I think the most serious mistake
that a believer could make is to think that the chief occupation he has,
the first occupation he has, is the winning of men to Christ. I say that
to you because I think many believers, preoccupied with that notion, go
out to win men to Christ ill equipped; and I am afraid they have caused
more abortions, spiritually speaking, than births. That is indeed
serious, because lives are involved–eternal life if you please.

I have often suggested to you that there is a law, one among a number,
that should be kept in mind in the study of the Word of God. I have
referred to it as “the law of the first mention.” I have suggested to you
that the way that you find something mentioned the first time in the
Scripture is indicative to what it's meaning shall be henceforth
throughout the Word of God. If typically something is mentioned for the
first time in a certain fashion, then it is used in that fashion from
henceforth.

Turn with me, please, to Exodus, chapter 16. You will recall the setting
of the verses at which we are going to look. The children of Israel were
in the wilderness. They were not about to starve, but they thought they
were, and they began to long for the flesh pots of Egypt, that which
satisfied the flesh. This God did not like, because He knew individuals
who spent all of their time satisfying the flesh could never operate in
the Spirit, so you read in verse 4 of Exodus, chapter 16:

Exodus 16

4

Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for
you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that
I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

5

And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that
which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.

Notice the word “gather” in verse 4 and the word “gather” in verse 5. It
is the translation of this Hebrew word lawkat
, which is
translated by the word “glean” in chapter 2 of the book of Ruth.
“Gleaning” and “gathering” are the same. The law of first mention relates
the gleaning to the gathering of bread from Heaven–manna, which is a
twofold type. It is a type of the living bread and a type of the written
Word, a type of the living Word and a type of the written Word.

Gleaning Truths From God's Word

If you are thinking, I believe you know what the chief occupation of the
redeemed soul ought to be. It ought not to be reaping in the sense of
winning men to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, it
ought to be gathering bread from Heaven, gathering manna provided by God,
gleaning precious truths from the Word of God that will enable the
redeemed person to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. I say to you that if you will make this your chief occupation,
winning of men to Christ will take care of itself. You will find
yourself, as you are fed fully upon the Word, committing the things which
you have learned to men who need to know them. When the bread satisfies
the need of your own heart, then you will find yourself wanting to share
it with others.

The accusation that is often made against people who put emphasis upon the
Word of God is that they are tarnished with a dead orthodoxy and they have
no real interest in the winning of souls. Statements such as that come
from unenlightened minds who place more emphasis on emotional experience
than they do upon the truth of the Word of God. I have never known any
person who spent his time gleaning in the Word but what he had a burden
for souls and was used abundantly of God in bringing those people to a
saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If in chapter 2 of the book of Ruth we find Ruth reaping or Ruth gleaning
or Ruth gathering, we should expect to find the characteristics of a good
gleaner. If we can find what those characteristics are, we can examine
our own lives as to whether or not we are really interested in the chief
occupation of the redeemed. We may need to revamp some of our thinking,
some of our approach to our study of the Word of God. We may need to add
to that to which we are already doing.

Ruth's Desire

The first thing that I would bring to your attention is what I have
designated as “Ruth's desire.” You remember that Ruth returned home to
Bethlehem as the daughter-in-law of Naomi. She really had no
responsibility. She could have sat in whatever quarters they existed in,
for theirs was a mere existence, and she could have said, “Naomi is the
head of the house since there is no husband. I have no responsibility.
Let Namoi be concerned about where we get our food.” Ruth was not that
kind of person. Notice in verse 2:

Ruth 2

2

And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and
glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she
said unto her, Go, my daughter.

You will notice “him” is in italics. It means it is not in the original
text. Actually the desire of Ruth is expressed in the words, “Let me now
go to the field and glean ears of corn.” This desire on the part of Ruth
came from her heart. The suggestion was not made by her mother-in-law.
It was not a forced issue. It came from the deep recesses of her heart.

Turn, please, to the book of Proverbs, chapter 2, as I suggest to you that
what Ruth was asking permission to do was not a pleasant thing nor an easy
thing. It could not be interpreted as a lark, in any sense of the word,
because gleaning was a humble work and gleaning was an arduous work.
Gleaning had to be preceded by a deep desire. The Spirit of God catches
that same thought in relation to the Word and presents it in Proverbs,
chapter 2, where he says:

Proverbs 2

Let your mind be fixed upon the fact that the words “wisdom” and
“understanding” are used interchangeably for “doctrine” in the Word of
God, as is true with the word “knowledge” in verse 3.

Proverbs 2

3

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for
understanding;

4

If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid
treasures;

5

Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge
of God.

Notice the expressions, “if thou doest apply thine heart,” “if you cry
after knowledge,” “if you lift up your voice,” “if you seek it as you do
silver,” “if you search for it as you do hid treasure.” Beloved, this is
a real desire. The reason the vast majority of Christendom lives in
ignorance of the Word of God is that this desire is lacking in most of
their hearts. They are occupied with so many things. Without being
critical of anyone or any group, I suggest that you take the average
churchgoer and examine the program of activities for the week. You will
discover that there is much that will occupy the time, but very little,
and sometimes nothing, has to do with the chief occupation of the
redeemed. So the desire of the redeemed to glean in the Word of God is
never really whetted and certainly never fulfilled.

Ruth's Diligence

Let us notice another characteristic. I refer to it as “Ruth's
diligence.” Somehow or other we would like to think that we could be an
empty vessel into which God in His grace would pour all the knowledge of
the truth of His word. We would find ourselves walking fountains of
wisdom in relation to God's Word, but it just isn't that way. If Ruth had
remained at home or had even gone to the harvest field and stood on the
sidelines, the need of her and her mother-in-law would never had been
meet.

Notice down in verse 7 of chapter 2, when the man who was in charge of the
reapers was reporting to Boaz concerning this damsel whom he had noticed
gleaning in the fields. He explained that she came to him, in verse 7,
and said, “Let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.”
The young man included in his report this statement. The very sense of it
indicates his own amazement and he said:

Ruth 2

7

…so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now [
and that was late in the day ], that she tarried a little in the
house.

He said, “She tarried a little in the house with the possible exception of
a little time that she rested in the shed built in the field to protect
the reapers from the heat of the noon day sun. This woman has been
diligent. She has not wasted one bit of time.”

If you will look at verse 17 of chapter 2, you will see how diligent this
woman actually was because we are told that she gleaned in the field until
even. After the man quit talking, she went ahead and gleaned until the
sun went down and then she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about
an ephah of barley. Now keep in mind from early morning and all during
the day except for the little respite that she had in the field shed, she
gleaned until evening and when she was through, she had an ephah of
barley. If you are not used to these measurements, you are probably
wondering, “Was that very much or not?” We are amazed to find that an
ephah of barley represented one bushel and three pints, and we are amazed
still farther when we learned that that represented a five-day supply of
food for her mother-in-law and for herself. Believe me, she wasted no
time.

I would ask the Holy Spirit to make application to your own heart, if He
pleases, and I think there is an application there of what you will find
in chapter 17 where you were told that she beat out what she had gleaned.
The only suggestion that I am going to make about it in relation to the
chief occupation of the redeemed is that perhaps if you and I, after we
had sat in Bible classes or Bible conferences or church services, as the
case may be, would beat out what we had gleaned, we would do so much
better.

I trust you will accept this in the spirit in which I say it because I do
not mean it critically. I always encourage questions, but sometimes I am
amazed at some questions. I am amazed because I find a thought running
through my head when the question is asked, “Where did I fail? Didn't I
get that across? Where were you when I taught that? I have taught it and
retaught it and taught it again and you haven't seemed to grasp it.” Keep
in mind the spirit in which I say it. I am saying it to make a point.
Make allowances for my failures in getting the point across and accept
this point of exhortation. Perhaps it would be good after our Bible
classes and our services if we would take a little time at home and go
over our notes or over our notations we made in our Bibles and beat out
the barley as we gleaned. We might find things fixed more firmly in our
minds, and we might find more barley than we thought we had.

Ruth's Dependence

I would like for you to notice another characteristic of a good gleaner.
It is illustrated, as far as I am concerned, in Ruth's dependence. That
dependence is all summed up in one word, the word “grace.” Notice that it
is brought to your attention in what Naomi had to say to Ruth in verse 2:

Ruth 2

22

And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law, It is good, my daughter,
that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other
field.

You see, Ruth recognized that her gleaning had to be dependent upon grace.
She did not own the field in which she gleaned. She had no real claim or
call upon the owners of the field in which she gleaned. It was all of
grace. And when she gleaned in any field–she had no particular field in
mind here in verse 2–she realized she was gleaning by grace. I would
like to suggest to you that only when you make your gleaning within the
Word of God upon the basis of grace are you going to get enough barley.
Only when you make your gleaning on the basis of grace are you going to
get enough to satisfy your soul.

You may wonder what I am talking about. I am talking about the grace
approach to the study of the Word of God instead of the legalistic
approach to the study of the Word of God. There are some individuals who
feel they have to read a chapter a day and if they don't, they are going
to be out of fellowship. So they work in that chapter some way, somehow,
and hate every minute they give to it. They don't learn anything when
that happens, but instead of worrying about whether it is a verse a day or
a chapter a day, you should glean. Remember the gleanings were the little
things that were gathered. If you would in grace ask God to give you
something for your labor, you would be surprised at what He would give.

Gleaning Characterized By Grace

Gleaning is not only dependent upon grace, but the gleaning in which Ruth
engaged was characterised by what I would call “amazing grace.” She was
amazed. Look at verse 10. After Boaz encouraged her, the way that we
will be noticing shortly:

Ruth 2

10

Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said
unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take
knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?

“Why, Boaz, have I found grace in thine eyes? I am a stranger. Why is it
that you have personal knowledge of me at this particular time?” When you
begin to glean in the Word of God, expect to be amazed at what you find
and be overwhelmed at God's personal knowledge of you. That's when the
Word begins to live and that is when it begins to bless your heart. You
are amazed at what you see and you are amazed that God could have had you
in mind when He wrote that particular portion of the Word of God.

Sometime folk will call me and say, “I am going to have someone with me
today in services, and I just felt that you would like to know it.” Maybe
it is someone about whom we both prayed or someone with a very special
need. The thoughtfulness of the person in giving me that information is
that through prayer God might give me something to say that will meet the
need of that person particularly. Oftentimes someone will come to me
after the service and say, “Did so and so tell you anything about me?” I
can always honestly say, “No, they didn't.” “Well,” they say, “I am
amazed. The very thing I needed is the very thing you pointed out in
God's Word today. I'm amazed. I don't understand it.” I am always happy
to say, “Well, I do. I understand it because God takes a personal
interest in you and He has a personal knowledge of you.” Just as Boaz
took a personal interest in Ruth, God takes a personal interest in each
individual who has the desire to glean in the harvest field of the Word of
God and find his need met.

Boaz as a Type of Christ

I would like to suggest to you by way of additional analogy that there is
in chapter 2 an analogy between the dealing of Boaz with Ruth and the
dealings of Christ with us. If you have done any study in the book at
all, you already know that Boaz is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
for all practical purposes of speaking, we are introduced to him for the
first time in chapter 2. If we were not familiar with the book of Ruth,
we would not have yet met this man, Boaz, who is brought to our attention.
We did tell you about him in our introductory lesson and suggested to you
that there is no accurate record of the meaning of the name “Boaz,” except
it was the term that was given to one of the pillars of the temple.
Though we do not know the exact meaning of the name “Boaz,” for our
typical study of Boaz as representative of Christ, which we will touch
upon very briefly, attention is called in verse 2 of chapter 2 that Boaz
was a kinsman of Naomi. Here the word “kinsman” comes from the Hebrew
word yawdah
, which simply means that he was a relative. That
tells us absolutely nothing, but later on in the chapter, in verse 20,
when Ruth was reporting to Naomi about her experiences of the day:

Ruth 2

20

And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who
hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi
said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.

Those words “kin” and “kinsmen” come from an entirely different Hebrew
word than the word in verse 2. They come from the Hebrew word gawal
. It means “redeemer.” When we study the book of Ruth from the
standpoint of soteriology, we will be thinking about the kinsman redeemer
and all he stands for. At the moment, we notice in the first verse that
he is referred to as a mighty man of wealth. Now, in a sense he was. He
was a wealthy man, but the word “wealth” there is not a happy translation.
It could be better translated “a mighty man of valour.” He was a man of
strength, of power, and of integrity. An emphasis is placed upon this in
view of the day in which he lived because you will recall that the book of
Ruth is an appendix to the book of Judges, and the book of Judges was a
day when men did all things which were right in their own eyes. Boaz
stood out above and beyond all other men of his generation. Everything
that could be said about Boaz could be said about the Lord Jesus Christ.

God's Provision for Gleaning

I say that to you because I want to remind you that Ruth was dependent
upon grace for her right to glean in the field, but her right to glean by
grace was very closely related to Boaz and was so presented that her right
to glean in the field was established even before her birth. To me that
is a marvelous illustration of God's provision for gleaning for every
believer today.

When you have time, you might like to read what is recorded in the book of
Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 9; chapter 23, verse 11; and Deuteronomy,
chapter 24, verse 19. In those passages of Scripture you will discover
that when God told the children of Israel how they should live in the land
of Canaan, He laid down laws about reaping. He said to them, “If you
forgot some of the grain in the field, don't go back and get it. Leave it
there. Leave it there for the widows. Leave it there for the orphans.
Leave it there for the gleaners.” And He said, “When you reap, don't be
selfish. Don't reap the corners of the field. Leave a little. When you
pick some of the fruit off the tree, don't pick it all. Leave some. I am
going to have some people who are going to need what is left. I am making
preparation for them now.”

I suggest to you, Beloved, that here is grace indicated in God's provision
for Ruth even before she was born. If we are going to make application
and draw the analogy as we should, I wish that everyone here could realize
what a tremendous recipient of God's grace you are to be able to sit in
this place and listen to someone expound the Word of God. I used to say
in other countries of the world they don't have that privilege, but you
know I quit saying that. We receive letters every day from people who
receive the printed page or the tapes and say, “For the first time in my
life, I am hearing the Word of God.”

Incidentally, you will pardon this personal allusion. I had a very
personal letter from a friend of Leslie Fox. Leslie was on board a ship,
and this friend wrote and said, “I was introduced to the Word of God by
Leslie Fox, and I am so hungry for the Word of God that I never have had
before. I wonder if you could send us everything you have on the Word of
God?” This young man and his wife, evidently out of the service now, from
what was indicated in his letter, wanted this for himself and his family
to study. This is what he said, “All I know about what you've presented
is a few lessons on prophecy and a few lessons on the Know Your Child
Study. I am so hungry for the Word. I have never had it before.” Now,
that is not from someone from a foreign land, but someone from this nation
of ours. He went on to say how the boys on this ship were literally
devouring God's Word. You ought to be praying for Leslie Fox that God
will be able to use him in distributing the Word, and then you ought to be
praying for these folk that as they glean in the barley harvest, they will
be able to beat out what they gleaned and they will be able to find
something that will encourage their hearts and make them grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Place of Gleaning Provided

I suggested to you that Ruth's right to glean was established even before
she was born, and I would like to suggest to you also that her place of
gleaning was related to divine providence. When I use the phrase, “divine
providence,” I am thinking of God's intervention in the affairs of men.
Notice verse 2 of chapter 2:

Ruth 2

2

And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and
glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she
said unto her, Go, my daughter.

3

And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and
[ notice carefully now ] her hap was to light on a part of the
field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.

Notice the phrase, “her hap was to light.” We don't use that kind of
language today, and so folk who read that verse carelessly say, “Well,
that meant that by accident she began to reap in the field of Boaz, by
chance, by coincidence.” Beloved, that isn't what it means, for that word
“hap” is rendered by the Hebrew word kawraw
, which is translated
“in good speed.” The first time you find it mentioned is in Genesis,
chapter 24, verse 12. We won't take the time to turn back there, but it
records the search of Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, for a wife for his
master, Isaac. As he went out to find that wife, he knelt down by a well
of water and he prayed. This was his prayer, “God of my master Abraham, I
pray thee send me some good speed this day. Send me divine direction.”
That is the meaning of the word “good speed.” When it says in the text
that “her hap was to light on the field of Boaz,” it doesn't mean that she
gleaned in the field of Boaz by chance. It means that she was divinely
directed to that particular field to glean.

If we wanted to draw our analogy out to extended limits, we might say that
there were many fields in which Ruth gleaned, for there were. The fields
were all around the city of Bethlehem. They had no fences. They just had
little piles of stone that separated the fields of Boaz from the fields of
someone else. She could have landed in anyone's field, but she landed in
the one which God had planned for her to land.

Divine Direction In Bible Study

If we want to draw the analogy out, we might say that there are sixty-six
fields in which you can glean. What do you do? Sometimes particularly
new converts begin to glean in the first field that they come to, the book
of Genesis, and they get bogged down before they get past chapter 2. They
say, “I don't know why the Bible isn't interesting to me. There must be
something wrong with me.” Beloved, you need to seek divine direction in
the field in which you glean. You need to pray the prayer of the
Psalmist, “Open thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of
thy law.” God will answer your prayer. He will direct you in the right
field and when He directs you to the right field, you will find what Ruth
found because she discovered that her gleaning was not without
encouragement. Your gleaning will not be without encouragement.

In verse 8, she found that there was sufficient grain. Boaz said to her,
“You don't need to hunt upon any other field. All the grain that you will
be able to assimilate, you will find right here.” Beloved, I would like
to remind you that all you need is in the Book. Don't spend your time
reading books about the Book. Study the Book. Every once in a while I
get a letter from some pastor and they say to me, “How many books have you
read this month? I have read thirty.” I always write back and say I
haven't read any, and then he puts me down as an ignoramus. Well, I
haven't read any about the Bible. That is what he is talking about. I
don't have time to. The Book itself has sufficient grain.

In the midst of her gleaning, she got thirsty. In verse 9, he told her,
“The young men will always have water drawn. You go there and drink any
time you want to, and I told them that it is all right.” In the midst of
your gleaning, you might find yourself getting a bit weary, and you will
find something cool as a refreshing drink of water, and if you ask God for
divine direction in the midst of gleaning, He will give you that which
will satisfy your thirst.

The Privilege of Personal Fellowship

In verse 14, she had the privilege of personal fellowship with Boaz–she
with Boaz, you with the Lord. Boaz took her into the field house at
mealtime and he–this is a marvelous thing to me–“handed her parched corn
and gave her bread to dip into the wine.” You will discover, if you learn
to glean in the field in the manner in which I am speaking, that the Lord
Jesus Christ will personally minister unto your needs through the Word, so
that you will feel that you have had a personal message from Him.

I love this next phrase found in verse 16, Boaz said to the reapers:

Ruth 2

16

And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave
them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.

What he meant was, “I want you to break off some of that grain and drop it
on the ground. Don't act like you did it on purpose, but do it on purpose
and go on by. Don't stop and pick it up. Let her get it.” Have you ever
gleaned from the Word of God some truths that you felt were handfuls on
purpose that God left there especially for you? Well, I have. My, how my
heart has been thrilled and sometimes in earlier days I would run to
someone with some truths from the Word of God and I would say, “Look what
the Lord left me.” They would take the wind out of my sails by saying,
“Well, I got that a long time ago. He didn't just leave that for you.”
Why, I thought He did! I had never seen it before. It was a whole
handful that I thought He left for me. Beloved, learn to glean in the
book and you will feel that way.

Conclusion

The last thing that I want to bring to your attention is what is brought
out in verse 12:

Ruth 2

12

The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the
LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

“You have come to trust under the wings of the LORD God of Israel and I
want you to have a full reward and you will.” There is no reward to be
compared with the reward that comes from gleaning in the Word of God.

I beg of you, Beloved, if you are occupied with a great many things that
may seem good to you, drop some of them and start gleaning in the Word as
Ruth gleaned in the fields of Boaz.

Prayer

Grant, Father, we ask Thee the Holy Spirit's ministry of the Word as we
have tried to deliver it. Make it effective in each of our hearts. For
we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.